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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

NEVAC is the National Electronic & Video Archive of the Crafts at the University of the West of England, Bristol. The archive has collected 289 hours of interviews with makers talking about their working practices in digital video and sound recordings. The website features clips and MP3 files of these interviews, including Celia Birtwell, Edmund de Waal and Stephen Jones.Link:http://www.media.uwe.ac.uk/nevac/Access: Free

This website 'The Tulse Luper suitcases: a personal history of uranium by Peter Greenaway' is part of the film director's work, which involves the fictitious character Henry Purcell Luper. Luper was born in Wales in 1911 and last heard of in 1989. His life is reconstructed from the evidence of 92 of his suitcases (92 is the atomic number of uranium) and set against the 20th century history of uranium. The character Luper has appeared in earlier Greenaway projects and this website is part of a network of different media relating to the character including exhibitions and DVDs. The site has three main sections: introduction, stills, and archives. The archives include a timeline, locations, categories and stories.Link:http://www.tulselupernetwork.com/basis.htmlAccess:Free

Monday, March 30, 2009

'Eclipse' is an open archive offering "digital facsimiles of the most radical small-press writing from the last quarter century". The website is free and offers full-text items. The extensive archive can be browsed by title or author, and items may be read online (as scanned images in TIF format) or downloaded in PDF format. Each item is usually accompanied by very short biographical and contextual details. Eclipse is made freely available by the Department of English at the University of Utah.Link:http://english.utah.edu/eclipse/Access:Free

Friday, March 27, 2009

For the anally retentive amongst us (or maybe just for geeky librarians) the Organized Collection Flickr Pool is a calming oasis in a world of chaos. Marvel at these beautiful photos from people whose idea of fun is making organised displays of trinkets.Link:http://www.flickr.com/groups/542301@N22/pool/Access: Free

Nine museums and galleries around the UK are collaborating on a website called Creative Spaces, with the aim of allowing people to group items from collections together and comment on them. Users become curators of their own exhibitions, gathering together objects that have inspired them from the nine participating institutions.Link: http://vna.nmolp.org/creativespaces/?page=homeAccess: Free

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Pioneer of the ambient and chillout music genres, DJ Mixmaster Morris has created an exclusive "mixtape" for Tate. Interpreting the global themes of Altermodern in a unique soundscape he blends underground and established music-makers from all genres and locations. You can download the Mixmaster Morris's mix or the individual tracks here, or you can download them directly through iTunes.

Companion to an exhibit that "follows the life of a hat through the stages of inspiration and creation, to the salon and finally to the client." View images of dozens of women's hats, a video of the making of a hat, and an interactive hat salon. Also includes instructions for making your own paper hat from milliner Stephen Jones. From the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).Link:http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/hats-anthology/Access: Free

Richard Felton Outcault (1863-1928) created Hogan’s Alley, which is considered the first commercially successful newspaper comic strip. It featured Mickey Dugan, better known as the Yellow Kid, and Outcault drew this character for the New York World from February 17, 1895 to October 4, 1896.Link:http://cartoons.osu.edu/yellowkid/Access:Free

Companion to an exhibition of historical cartoons and caricatures, some of the most lasting and effective "images that demonstrate the power of art as a vehicle for social and political commentary." Includes annotated images by James Gillray (a British satirist from the 18th century), Charles Dana Gibson, Miguel Covarrubias, Garry B. Trudeau, Thomas Nast, John Held Jr., Peggy Bacon, and others. From the Library of Congress (LOC).Link: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/craws/Access: Free

This is "an online repository of over 4000 items of text, images, audio, and video for teaching, learning, and research" about World War I poetry. Browse collections for specific poets such as Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Robert Graves, Vera Brittain, and Edward Thomas. Also features additional media collections, educational materials, and separate archive of user-submitted items. From the University of Oxford.Link:http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/Access: Free

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The website for the US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has provided this collection of over 300 video excerpts featuring painters, sculptors, installation artists and photographers, from feature length documentaries produced for their television series Art:21 - Art in the 21st Century.Arranged alphabetically each section includes one to four short videos, a biography and slideshows of the artist at work, a survey of their work, interviews and an interactive section highlighting the artist's links. Key artists include Laurie Anderson; Louise Bourgeois; Jenny Holzer; Roni Horn; Pierre Huyghe; Sally Mann; Gabriel Orozco; Jessica Stockholder; William Wegman; and Andrea Zittel.Link: http://www.pbs.org/art21/multimedia/Access: Free

Monday, March 23, 2009

This website contains the 'Dialogue Box' and the 'Think Tank' of the Adobe Design Center, freely offering a range of full-text essays, interviews, and papers on contemporary designers, design issues and trends. Articles are presented in HTML and PDF formats, often with video or audio elements. At March 2009, there are around 150 articles, with titles such as: 'VJ culture'; 'The invisible city: Design in the age of intelligent maps'; 'Preparing designers for jobs that don't exist (yet)'; 'Creative gesture or vapid prototyping? The importance of fictional products'; and 'The last stage is acceptance: Robots and design', among others.Link:http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/Access:Free

'From New Typography to Swiss Style: modernist book design in Germany and Switzerland 1925-1965' is an online collection of over 580 examples of such innovative book design. It is free to use and browse. There is a short illustrated introduction to the collection, and each item is represented by a profusely illustrated short text about the work.Link:http://wiedler.ch/felix/booksAccess: Free

Friday, March 20, 2009

The Library's subscription to 19th Century British Newspapers has just been upgraded to include 17th and 18th century newspapers and pamphlets from the British Library's Burney Collection. Now you can search for subjects such as 'slavery' across newspapers spanning the dates 1600-1900. In total, the resources totals approximately 2.2 million pages.Link:http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/glasart?db=BNWSAccess: Athens account required off-campus

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Tate Online has just made available a film of Marcus Coats."Coates knows a lot about birds, he can mimic their calls, interpret their behaviour and, he says, even converse with them... in the spirit world. For his art, he films himself entering a trance like state that he calls ‘becoming animal’, and attempts to solve people’s problems by seeking answers from the animal spirits that he encounters. In this latest work, he visits the mayor of a town in Israel, and answers a question about the crisis there."Link:http://www.tate.org.uk/tateshots/episode.jsp?item=18096Access:Free

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Looking for sketches, doodles and similar images? Then consider trying Sketchory which has a database of 250,000 sketches. They are only slightly indexed though, and users are encouraged to help out by tagging images. Images are made available under Creative Commons terms and conditions.Link: http://sketchory.com/Access: Free

Friday, March 06, 2009

A new images resource offers online access to printed, written and illustrative material from National Library of Scotland collections.In the NLS Digital Archive you will find thousands of images of complete books, manuscripts, maps, photographs and drawings. Still at an early stage of development, the resource features a small selection of image groups such as: Official photographs from the First World War; Robert Burns's 'Poems chiefly in the Scottish dialect'; Soviet posters, 1919-1930.Link:http://digital.nls.uk/Access:Free

Thursday, March 05, 2009

This is the website for the online exhibition ‘an invitation to dance: a history of social dance in America. The exhibition is hosted by the Center for Historic American Visual Culture (CHAVIC) which forms part of the American Antiquarian Society and was curated by Meghan Meade. The exhibition contains illustrations and objects that provide a glimpse into the history of social dance in America. Topics covered include: an introduction, origins of dance, unspoken language, types of dance, fashion, opposition and etiquette. All topics are supported by illustrations and images of dance programmes, prints, sheet music, dance invitations and so forth.Link:http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Dance/index.htmAccess: Free

More than 4,000 images of works by architects and designers Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene, who "are widely considered to have brought high-art aesthetics and exquisite craftsmanship to the American Arts and Crafts Movement in the early part of the 20th century" and who did much of their work in southern California. Includes a biography, image database, and links to related material. Hosted by the University of Southern California (USC).Link: http://www.usc.edu/dept/architecture/greeneandgreene/Access: Free

"This website answers the question 'What would [artist] Frida [Kahlo] wear?' by offering a glimpse of some of the Mexican textiles of the Cordry Collection" at the Arizona State Museum. Dress Frida in traditional Mexican garments such as the huipile and quechquemitl by clicking on the thumbnail images in the exhibit's interactive features. Also includes background on Mexican textiles, brief biography of Kahlo, and a bibliography. Produced by an intern for the Arizona State MuseumLink: http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/exhibits/frida/Access:Free

Website companion to the 2009 exhibition "State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda," which "reveals how the Nazi Party used modern techniques as well as new technologies and carefully crafted messages to sway millions with its vision for a new Germany." Includes a timeline, information about the themes used in Nazi propaganda, a gallery of propaganda examples, and resources for further study. From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.Link:http://www.ushmm.org/propaganda/Access:Free

Companion website to a 2009 exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of Robert Frank's "The Americans" (first published in France in 1958, in the U.S. in 1959), which "is widely celebrated as the most important photography book since World War II." Includes an exhibition feature, audio of art talks, and a slide show from an installation held in conjunction with this exhibit, entitled "Reading the Modern Photography Book: Changing Perceptions." From the National Gallery of Art, Washington.Link: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/frankinfo.shtmAccess: Free

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Over 20,000 images capturing over 150 years of polar exploration have been made accessible online by the Scott Polar Research Institute. Negatives, daguerreotypes and lantern slides, which form part of a rich but fragile archive held by the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, have been made available to scientists, researchers, scholars and members of the public.Link:http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/resources/freezeframe/Access: Free

The East London Theatre Archive (ELTA) website provides a digital archive that features material from V&A Theatre Collections, Hackney Empire, Half Moon Young People's Theatre, Hoxton Hall, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Theatre Venture, and Wilton's Music Hall.The archive can be searched, or browsed by theatre or collection. A huge variety of items are shown, including: architectural drawings; posters; press releases; programmes; photographs; flyers; annual reports; contracts; and educational packs. Although a small handful of 19th century playbills relating to Hoxton Hall is included, the majority of material ranges from the 1970s to 2008.Link: http://www.elta-project.org/home.htmlAccess: Free

This collection of BBC Web pages offers an introduction to the technology and innovation of the Victorian era, when 'Britain emerged as the most powerful trading nation in the world, provoking a social and economic revolution whose effects are still being felt today'. A five-page article by the lecturer, broadcaster and exhibition curator, Paul Atterbury, which may be downloaded or printed out, forms the heart of the material. Each page of the article may be accessed individually, under the headings 'A powerful trading nation', 'Great pioneers', Booming railways' and 'Communication revolution', with the final page, 'Find out more', offering a bibliography for further research.Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/victorian_technology_01.shtmlAccess: Free

Monday, March 02, 2009

This is the website of the exhibition 'Designing Women of Postwar Britain; their art and the modern interior', which was at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center from 20 September 2008 to 25 January 2009. Curated by Shanna Shelby and Tariana Navas-Nieves, the exhibition draws on the Denver collection of Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III. It features approximately 120 works by six female designers and showcases three of these designers: Lucienne Day, Marian Mahler, and Jacqueline Groag. The website foregrounds three textile designs by each of the designers, including 'Calyx' by Lucienne Day, as well as an example of work by each of the other designers, Mary White, Mary Warren, and Paule Vezelay. There are also photographic portraits of Day, Mahler and Groag.Link:http://www.designingwomentextiles.com/Access:Free

Flipbook.info provides a detailed history of flipbooks, complete with animated sequences which demonstrate the workings of such books. Other sections of the website are entitled 'Typology' which groups flipbooks into categories including cinema, sport and eroticism; and 'Viewers', providing an historical account of some of the devices introduced to view flipbooks. There is a searchable database of over 500 flipbooks, a regularly updated blog, with archives available dating back to 2005, and a links page.Link:http://www.flipbook.info/index_en.phpAccess:Free

Asia rising : Japanese postcards is an online exhibition of postcards from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection of Japanese Postcards at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.A long essay by American historian John W. Dower examines the Russo-Japanese war and its representation in postcards, images of which are embedded in the text. The Visual Narratives section presents much larger images of these postcards in thematic extracts from the essay, allowing details to be examined.Link:http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/asia_rising/index.htmlAccess: Free